Chalice is a Canadian Catholic charity that primarily supports community initiatives in developing countries through the sponsorship of children and elderly in need.

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Cook with Chalice brings traditional recipes from our sponsor sites around the world to you. Learn authentic recipes rooted in history that you can make in your own home.

On a mission trip, our videographer, Kate, had the opportunity to watch the preparation of a hearty, traditional Kenyan stew. This simple, filling lunch is easy to prepare and is a staple in many Kenyan diets. Kenyan stew is usually made with what’s on hand, so feel free to add some of the optional ingredients if you have them in your pantry.

Ireen from Zambia, Africa, had a difficult childhood. When her father passed away, her mother couldn’t afford to care for her children with her small income as a housekeeper. She sent her four children, including Ireen, to live with their grandfather. He also had trouble providing everything the children needed, and often could not afford their school fees. “I started at Kasisi Primary School when I was five, but had no one to pay for my school fees,” she recalls. Irene wasn’t able to regularly attend school for many years.

When Ireen was 10 years old, she was sponsored by Chalice through our Serenje Site. “I was so blessed to be a part of the Chalice sponsorship program,” she smiles. Sponsorship allowed her to attend school every single day with the proper supplies to learn. She received lots of support to help her succeed. “The Chalice site workers often visited me at home to see me and see how I was doing in school,” she recalls. Ireen worked hard in school, and had excellent marks upon her grade 12 graduation.

Ireen was accepted into college for her outstanding academic achievement. It had always been her dream to become a teacher, so she decided to study childhood education. Ireen graduated from college in 2016, and is now a primary teacher at Kasisi Primary School, the school she first attended when she was a little girl.

“I’m so happy I’m able to give back to my community and help my family,” Ireen expresses. “I love teaching and would like to see all of the vulnerable children succeed in life. May God bless, guide, and protect all of you helping children through Chalice.”

April 25 is World Malaria Day, an occasion to highlight the ongoing effort to fight and eradicate malaria. Malaria is a disease spread by mosquitoes. It causes severe flu-like symptoms, and can lead to death if untreated. Some of our sites are in areas where malaria is prevalent. We work with our sites to prevent malaria by providing mosquito nets and preventative medication. Sponsored children are able to receive crucial medical care for the treatment of this serious disease.

Kate, our Creative Specialist, contracted malaria while working in Ghana, Africa. Read about her experience that inspired her to sponsor a child through Chalice:

“In 2013, I had just turned 22. I had also just graduated from York University, with a degree in Film Production. The ink was barely dry on my diploma, and I found myself in Tamale, Ghana, on an internship. It was supposed to be a communications job, but when I got there, they saw my camera. At the time, I was not a trained photographer, but my Nikon looked professional enough to them, and photographer soon became my primary role.

One organization in our membership group was just launching a new project with some of the poorest households in northern Ghana, which is the most impoverished and underdeveloped region of the country. They had no photos for their marketing materials or reports, so off I went, on the back of a motorbike, to rural hospitals, schools, and homes.

There’s a town way up in the northwest called Wa. Going to Wa is well known to be a harrowing journey. The roads are not just unpaved, but require a Land Cruiser to even think about driving on them. Our trip kept getting delayed, as it took only the smallest detail to derail the whole plan. My anticipation was mounting, and I was thrilled when we finally had a date for it to happen.

Kate in Wa, Ghana

The morning before we left, I woke up not feeling well. I hoped it was dehydration, so I drank some juice, and set off for the 45 minute walk to Mass. I lurched and staggered up the road, and realized I couldn’t make it. Determined that I was not sick, I rested in bed for the day.

I awoke the next morning faring no better. I started telling my roommates that I was going to the hospital to be tested for malaria, and started asking about where to go. I realized in all my frenzy, I was actually feeling better. Maybe breakfast had kicked in, I reasoned. I felt good enough to go. So I went to Wa, not saying anything to my companions about the scare.

The roads were as atrocious as I’d been promised, but I was otherwise fine. The next day, however, the nausea was back. I later learned this is a common aspect of malaria – symptoms come in waves. Later, I felt well enough to work , only to arrive at the site to be ushered to a chair or the back of a truck to curl into a ball while my colleagues did their jobs.

One of the days, they dropped me off at a guest house run by a Catholic convent. The sisters let me stay for the afternoon, free of charge. I was so grateful for their generosity. Through my stubbornness, I had not just become a burden to my colleagues, but was imposing on these kind and busy Sisters. After about three days of this pattern, my colleagues took me to a doctor for malaria treatment.

When I returned to Canada a few months later, I landed a full time job in my chosen field, film making. I knew I finally had sufficient means to start sponsoring a child through Chalice. My parents had always sponsored at least one child. To me, it was just a matter of course that I would sponsor someday too.

I learned that Chalice has a sponsor site in Wa, as I probably would have observed if I hadn’t been quite so… hindered. Wa’s dry climate and unpredictable rains create frequent water shortages. Sustaining small-scale farms is precarious, and most educated youth move to the prospering southern regions. Retaining teachers is a constant challenge. Hepatitis B is a pervasive issue.

Those were all reasons to sponsor a child in Wa. But as I was on Chalice’s website, a smile jumped out at me. Her name is Geraldina, and at the time, she was 12 years old. And what did she want to be? A nurse, just like the ones who cared for me when I was vulnerable.

That is my story of why I sponsored a child. There are thousands, tens of thousands more. Over the years, Chalice staff have heard hundreds of reasons of why sponsors chose that child. Some felt strangely compelled. Some happened to pick up the folder of a child with their own name, or the name of a deceased relative. Some see a child who wants to have their profession when they grow up, or have the same hobbies as their own children. I have sponsored Geraldina for 3 years now, and I hope one day she can be among the ranks of those kind and compassionate nurses.”

Power for a sewing machine: 220 volts. Power for a chainsaw: 58 volts. Power for an oven: 240 volts. Power for a man or woman to earn a consistent, competitive daily wage: stronger than the sun!

Unemployment among parents is a consistent issue across all of Chalice’s sites. Finding daily wage work (such as agricultural labour) is challenging and often seasonal, and permanent positions a pipe dream to many. Naturally, many people become entrepreneurs, making use of their skills and available resources to start a small business – be it a handicraft, or a service, or an agricultural endeavour.

But as we all know from shows like Dragon’s Den, any new business needs capital up-front. To sell the tomatoes, you need to buy all the materials to grow them. To sell woven saris, you need to buy the loom and the silk. To sell flowers from a cart, you need the cart!

That’s why it’s so exciting to meet community members in the Chalice sites who have taken the plunge with a small business with an item either given from the Gift Catalogue or with a loan from their Chalice Circle Group. The impact of such every-day items is almost immediate, and that impact is significant!

For instance, I met Mr Munyamuthu in the village of Edaiyar, a part of Chalice’s STAR site in India. In that region, most people rely on daily agricultural labour jobs, such as picking and weeding, to earn income. However, that work is inconsistent at best, and often disappears when the local crops are out of season, or the harvest is poor due to lack of rain. Mr Muniyamuthu’s family were among the people who relied on this source of income, but also had one other asset – a sound system they could rent to major events, especially weddings. Through the Chalice Gift Catalogue, he was able to purchase a Samiyana, a brightly-coloured tent canopy, also to be used at weddings and large events. He has had it since June of 2017, and has already made several bookings. He is able to take more than 1,000 rupees ($20) with a single day’s rental. He joked with me that he always wears a white shirt and dhoti (the traditional long, skirt-like garment) so that he looks likes the brides who want to rent his tent!

Mr Muniyamuthu, his family, and their new Samiyana tent

I met Ms. Geetha, who lives in the village of Thatanur, also a part of STAR in her tailoring workshop. She and her son were abandoned by her husband, and she was left destitute. She was forced to move in with her parents. In June 2017, she received a sewing machine from the Chalice Gift Catalogue. She now runs her tailoring operation out of the back of her father’s restaurant. With the new machine, she is able to do double and triple the work than she was able before.

Ms Geetha and her new sewing machine.

When I was in Nanyuki, Kenya, the local Chalice staff were eager for me to meet Mr. Josphat. Before Josphat’s child was enrolled in the sponsorship program, their family’s life was very difficult. He was a “hawker” – selling small items such as socks and vests (undershirts) in the street. He and his family lived in a slum. He always wanted to start a business, but could never get the capital up-front to do so. When Josphat first received the Family Funding money from Chalice, he bought one piece of charcoal, and sold it. Then a bag of charcoal. He expanded to selling a small amount of tomatoes. Now he has trucks full of tomatoes and onions to sell at his market stall. He has been able to move into a house near the market, with land for more farm production. His children had never slept inside a cemented house before – and they loved it! The whole family is also grateful that the sponsorship program has allowed all of the children to receive a good education. Josphat dreams of being able to buy an acre of farmland and begin cattle-rearing, securing the long-term financial stability of his family.

Josphat at the produce stall he owns and runs with his wife.

Everyone here at Chalice loves to see these dynamic parents investing in their families and the futures of their children. The fruits of their hard work, not to mention their bravery in the face of risk, shows in the ambition and success of their children. It’s like that saying – “Give a man to fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” It’s almost like Chalice adds “Give a man a fishing rod, feed him, and his family, for generations.”

Since 2015, Chalice has been partnering with Inverness County Cares, a Nova Scotian community group, to support the daily operations of St Charles Lwanga Secondary School, near Nairobi, Kenya.

St Charles Lwanga secondary school, just outside Nairobi, Kenya.

I was visiting the school, and my colleagues went into a meeting while I walked around the school to take pictures – I am the photographer, after all. I had made my rounds and returned to the headmaster’s office to wait for my colleagues to come for lunch. It became clear that lunch was going to be a while yet. So I went back out and hung out with students while they took their lunch break. Still no sign of my colleagues. But I realized the cooking staff were getting under way with preparing our meal. Thinking of those popular ‘recipe videos’ like on Mashable and Buzzfeed, I pulled out my camera and tried to capture the process of making…whatever it was exactly that they were making.

Chopping onions. Chopping tomatoes. Boiling water… aha! They’re making a stew! So, I got completely underfoot for the next hour or so while they prepared stew, rice, greens and other delectable items for my colleagues and me.

When I got home, I made my very own “recipe video” – but good luck trying it at home, because there aren’t exactly precise timings and measured ingredients.

Our meal that day represented many Kenyan staples. It included:

Beef stew – beef, tomato, onion, garlic, oil

Rice – classic and white!

Ugali – a staple for Kenyan cuisine – it consists of cooking either cornmeal, millet or sorghum flour in boiling water or milk until solidifies into a thick, doughy ball.

Stewed or braised mixed (collard) greens

Topped off with a beautiful, sweet, creamy local banana for dessert.

I had noticed that the students were also eating ugali that day, and theirs was paired with githeri, another ubiquitous staple meal, which really means any kind of combination of boiled beans and corn. It’s understandable why it’s popular – it’s highly versatile with flavouring, and it’s filling and nutritious when served with a starch — like today’s ugali, or perhaps a chapathi (a soft flatbread similar to tortilla or naan).

Serving plates of lunch at St Charles Lwanga

And with full bellies, we continued onto a highly productive day. My colleagues completed their meetings, and the students conducted a school-wide debate. Powered on nutritious food, there’s no stopping these young people!

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